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Monmouthshire Towns & Parishes

MACHEN, Monmouthshire

"MACHEN, a parish chiefly in the lower division of the hundred of Wentllooge, county Monmouth, but partly in the hundred of Caerphilly, county Glamorgan, 5 miles N.W. of Newport, its post town. It is situated between the Rumney and Ebbs, and includes the hamlets of Upper and Lower Machen, and Rhydgwern. Here are mines from which are obtained calamine, coal, iron, and lead. The principal seat of industry is Upper Machen, where there are extensive iron and tin works, a foundry, and the works of the Rumney Railway Company. The Monmouthshire canal, and the Rhymney and Tyrhowey railways, afford facility of conveyance to Newport."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]

Bibliography

• Bedwas and Machen Urban District official guide.        Carshalton] : Home Publishing, [1972]
• Coleman, Delphine.           Machen revisited. Stroud : Tempus Publishing, 2001. Images of Wales. 128p.
• Machen remembered.             Chalford : Chalford Publishing, 1996. 128p. Chalford Oral History Series.
• Osborne. G A.        Notes on an early cattle enclosure on Mynydd Machen.           Gwent Local History. No. 91 2001 Welsh Journals Online

Church History

See John Ball's site Welsh Churches and Chapels Collection for a photograph/data re St John the Baptist, Upper Machen

See John Ball's site Welsh Churches and Chapels Collection for a photograph/data re St Michael's Church, Lower Machen

Church and chapel data from The Religious census of 1851 : A Calendar of the returns relating to Wales, Vol 1, South Wales. Ed. by I.G   Jones, & D. Williams. UWP,  Cardiff, 1976. The names given towards the end of each entry are those of the informants.  Check with  Gwent RO to see what extant records are held, and possible names of chapels/churches established after 1851.

Machen Parish, consisting of the hamlets of Lower Machen, Upper Machen and Rhydgwen (the latter in the county of Glamorgan).  Statistics; Area 4460 acres; Population 1172 males, 1038 females, total 2210

• Lower Machen
• Machen Parish Church         Attendance  - morning 127 + 42 scholars, afternoon 35 + 27 scholars   "The presence of measles in the parish at the time will account for the small attendance of children"            2 services in English          Augustus Morgan, Rector
•  
• Providence, Primitive Methodist      Erected 1846        Attendance - morning 40 + 96 scholars, afternoon 98 scholars, evening 87          Thomas Giles, Minister, Abersychan
• Ebenezer, Wesleyan       Erected 1851     Attendance - afternoon 70, evening 150        Joseph Beeston. George Young, Grocer, Machen
•  
• Upper Machen
• Capel Ucha, Wesleyan Meth. (Welsh)      Erected 1830    Attendance - morning 28 + 30 scholars, evening 33         Thomas Price, Chapel Steward, Bedwas
• Siloam, Baptist       Erected 1820       Attendance - (average)  morning 150, afternoon 70 scholars, evening 200            Thomas Williams, Deacon, Gellifiniog, Machen
• Adullam, Upper Machen, near the Fountry (sic) Independents      Erected  before 1846     Attendance - morning 80 + 32 scholars, afternoon 'School', evening 200     Evan Jones, Deacon, Dyer, Pandy, Machen
• Capel y Groes    Calvinistic Methodist    Erected 1843       Attendance - morning 30 scholars, afternoon 47, evening 37    Hugh Lumley, Leader, Pandy Machen
•  
• Rhydgwern hamlet (Glamorgan)
• Draethon, Room or Place of Worship   Wesleyan Methodist    Erected 1825 (building not used exclusively as a place of worship)    Attendance - evening 39     "Religious service is held in a house occupied by James Howells. Wesleyan Methodists commenced preaching in the above Place the year 1835."    Signed by Mark; James Howell, Leader of the Society, Mason, Dreathon

Church Records

See the Monmouthshire county page for links to online records

• This list of parish records is intended as a rough guide to coverage only. Their location as stated should be confirmed with the appropriate Record Office prior to any visit.

  Machen, St Michael's Church - records with the NLW
  Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
  1670-1850	1670-1837	1670-1849
  Bishops Transcripts	1696, 1725-68, 1770-5, 1777-1828, 1830-77 - records with the NLW

  [Details as published in The Parish Registers of Wales, NLW 1986 - present location/availability may vary] selected parish records.

Description and Travel

• Machen - on wikipedia    also Lower Machen
• Machen - on Vision of Britain
• Castell Machen -  on castle wales
• Machen photographs - on geograph.org.uk

Directories

• Kelly's Directory of Monmouthshire 1901 - Machen.

Gazetteers

• The transcription of the section for Machen from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin Hinson.

Maps

• Kain, R.J.P., Oliver, R.R., Historic Parishes of England and Wales: an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata [computer file]. Colchester, Essex: History Data Service, UK Data Archive [distributor], 17 May 2001. SN: 4348.  Here is a gazetteer/finding aid plus a set of overview maps to accurately identify the position of parishes within the county

• View maps covering the area of this parish and places within its boundaries

(Last updated - Gareth Hicks  - 4 March 2012)

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